65th Annual Pear Blossom Festival Begins

Street closures and traffic are a sure thing for this year's Pear Blossom Festival. Watch NewsWatch 12 This Morning for the latest details before events kickoff this afternoon.

Posted: Apr. 13, 2018 3:26 AM

Updated: Apr. 13, 2018 11:35 AM

Posted By: Cassandra Mlynarek

MEDFORD, Ore. -- The main events for the 65th Annual Pear Blossom Festival are set to begin this afternoon. Today in downtown Medford, you'll see street closures as festival organizers and vendors begin putting up booths and events throughout the area.

The festival will begin at noon with the Street Fair and then the Smudge Pot Stroll, and Pear A Fare events will follow later in the afternoon. The biggest closures come from the parade, which kicks off on South Central Avenue at 11 a.m.

The parade route will start near the intersection of South Central Avenue and Beatty Street, turn right on West Main Street, and ends around peach street. Roads will be closed off as early as 7 a.m. on Saturday surrounding the parade route and as early as 6 a.m. in areas surrounding the 10 Mile Race and 5k Run.

Organizers are anticipating 40,000 people to be in attendance and about half of those patrons to attend the parade.